When Trond Grizzell plays his final game at California Memorial Stadium on Saturday, he will wrap up a long and productive collegiate career in Berkeley that began nearly a half decade ago. The fifth-year senior wide receiver may be a regular around town now, but when he checked into his dorm room in June of 2021, it was the first time he had ever been on the Cal campus.

Emerging suddenly and unexpectedly is a Grizzell trademark.

He did it a couple of times in high school, first as a freshman when the Southern California native spent the second semester of his first year as a prep in Telluride, Colorado. When he departed his hometown of San Marino in December, he was five feet, eight inches tall. When he returned six months later, he had grown six inches.

"Everyone was like 'what the heck'," Grizzell said with a laugh.

With California high school football shut down during COVID, Grizzell left San Marino for a second time to star on the gridiron at Park City High School in Utah.

So by the time he showed up in Berkeley for the first time almost five years ago as a preferred walk-on, he was ready for it.

"I didn't really have any sort of idea of how that would go, but I knew that I wanted to play football and work hard every day in practice," Grizzell said.

That's exactly what he did.

Grizzell spent most of his first two seasons at Cal honing his craft and becoming one of the Golden Bears' top scout team players.

"Trond is a sponge," fellow Cal wide receiver Jordan King said. "Early on before he started playing in games, Trond learned so much from all of the great receivers around him. Then, when he got his chance to play, he applied what he had learned from others that worked for him to his game."

When Grizzell finally got his first chance to play on a regular basis in 2023, he seized the opportunity by producing 39 receptions for 590 yards and a career-high five touchdown grabs.

Grizzell's 2023 performance earned him a scholarship in January of 2024 and he has continued to perform over the last two seasons. In 38 career games (25 starts), Grizzell has racked up 1,660 career receiving yards that are the third-most of any Cal player in the last decade to go along with 111 receptions and seven touchdown catches.

Grizzell has been at his best in the Big Game by producing the most career receptions (20) and yards receiving (310) ever by a Cal player against the Cardinal. He was a Big Game hero in a 2023 win at Stanford with seven receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns with both the yardage and touchdowns his single-game career highs, while his career-long 54-yard scoring grab in the contest is the longest reception of his career. Grizzell added four receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown in a 2024 win and a career-high nine catches for 104 yards in 2025.

Grizzell looks to add to his lofty numbers over his final two collegiate contests Saturday in the Bears' regular-season finale against SMU and a bowl game before he hopes to trade in his five seasons of familiarity at Cal for his old appearing-out-of-thin-air-trick for the NFL.

"They will be getting a bigger body guy who is not afraid to go over the middle, catch over routes, and does a really good job at high-pointing and winning 50-50 balls," Grizzell said about his NFL potential. "I'd also like to think I'm the smartest receiver out there at all times. I take pride in knowing the playbook like the back of my hand, being on top of everything and being overly prepared."

Hopefully, his collegiate numbers and preparation will speak for themselves and he will no longer need to reside to his old tricks to make himself a known commodity to NFL teams, but it's nice to know he can call upon them again if needed.